Thursday, March 20, 2008

Schizo

The last two times, the snow has arrived as a distinct solid wall of cold air. The air change is instantaneous. Only a meager attempt could have been made in blending warm and frigid. It arrives like a tsunami and just keeps rolling in, snow cold.

















By now I should be used to it. I have accepted the notion that the new warm is 55 with sun. The difficulty comes from a very rapid acclimation to this new warm that obliterates any previous, ever so slow, acclimation to snow cold.

Down in town, spring is springing. Maple trees are beginning to bloom. Golden Daffodils tug at the eye while driving by. Forsythia turn yellow. Willows blush green. Some white flowered tree that must be a Crabapple or Pear of some sort is almost at peak bloom.

On the ridge top garden, the 10,000 daffodils gather force.













It is plain to see though, there is still room for plenty more. Big gaps. We can't have that. It may take 30,000 daffodils on this acre of ground to give it a fuller look.













Meanwhile with a little less fanfare, smaller, quieter bulbs speckle the hillside more often. Maybe this is Puschkinia. Maybe it is another Chionodoxa, 'Pink Giant'. They are a closely related genus. The tiny, deep blue Chionodoxa forbesii is trying to make a showing next to the Snowdrops. We'll see it if makes it.















The warm sunny hill covered in Daffodil foliage was gripped in the tsunami of cold this morning.













Going limp is the survival strategy. I have faith now that they will perk up when the snow melts and the sun returns. Still it is another shock to the system after the rapid acclimation to the whole 55 of warm. My system, not the Daffodils. It still freaks this former tropical gardener out just a bit to see a plant drop to the ground like that when it goes below freezing.













It may just be schizo up here.













The snow is either not falling, or not sticking, down there.

7 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Brrrrrrr those poor daffodils don't look very happy this first day of spring.

Carol Michel said...

Yes, the volatility of spring. Warm one day, cold the next. "Warm" is easier to get used to, that is for sure.

Carol, May Dreams Gardens

Entangled said...

I'm used to seeing the crocuses get snowed on, but narcissus is another matter. :-(

I'd vote for Chionodoxa as an ID for your question mark bulb.

Christopher C. NC said...

The Daffodils look fine a day later and it is a glorious and sunny 60 degrees with a slight chance of snow in the diagnosis for Monday.

Anonymous said...

Christopher, I think somewhere (somewhere at the beginning of your transition from Hawaii to North Carolina) - I missed the connection between the land that you are now on - and the fact that it is your mother's garden too.

Seeing all of those clumps of daffodils does remind me of my own mother's garden in the woods too.

Christopher C. NC said...

Pam perhaps if I called the resident gardeners, "my parents" instead of the resident gardeners, it would be more clear. I do not want to accentuate the grown son living in his parent's basement. It is too cliche'.

lisa said...

"The new warm"...heh, now you see why tourists from temperate climates go to Florida and wear shorts when it's 50 degrees. Perception is indeed reality. :)